Deeplinks Blog posts about Innovation

Court Orders Blue Spike to Explain Why It's Keeping the Public in the Dark

In a victory for the First Amendment and public access to court proceedings, a magistrate judge ruled in favor of EFF’s motion to unseal documents in a patent case in the Eastern District of Texas. This means that the patent owner in that case, Blue Spike, will no longer be able to shield from the public its arguments about how the defendant infringes its patents. Also, the court has indicated that it will publish public versions of important rulings that, until now, had been completely hidden from the public.

Together with Public Knowledge and R Street, EFF filed an amicus brief today asking the Supreme Court to consider and overturn a troubling decision from the Federal Circuit. If allowed to stand, the lower court’s decision could undermine the right to use, resell, tinker with, and analyze the devices you own.

Last month, EFF moved to intervene in a patent case in order to unseal records we believe have been improperly kept from the public. Yesterday, the court granted EFF’s motion to intervene, and in doing so, rejected a troubling argument being put forth by the patent owner.

The case is Blue Spike v. Audible Magic. As we noted in our blog post last month, numerous documents, including at least three court opinions, have been completely withheld from the public. The sealed documents are highly substantive, and from what we can gather, would help the public better understand what, exactly, Blue Spike claims to have invented.